The Vegas Golden Knights and the Dallas Stars go head-to-head in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals. Vegas was able to secure a 4-3 victory in their first meeting, but the Stars are hoping to tie things up before returning home. Jason Robertson has himself a strong game one, but Jake Oettinger was up to the task. Can Adin Hill and the Golden Knights take a commanding two-game lead? You can build daily fantasy hockey lineups on DraftKings, FanDuel, and Yahoo Fantasy for Sunday, May 21st, but before you build those NHL daily fantasy lineups, don’t forget to check out our NHL DFS projections, the NHL Value Finder, and the NHL DFS lineup generator. Let's now take a closer look at the daily fantasy hockey top plays for tonight's NHL DFS Showdown slate.

 


Highest Expected Goal Totals 

Vegas Golden Knights vs. Jake Oettinger: (2.9)

Dallas Stars vs. Adin Hill: (2.7)
 

Dallas Stars Vs. Vegas Golden Knights


Players to target: Roope Hintz, Joe Pavelski, Miro Heiskanen, Wyatt Johnston, Tyler Seguin, Ryan Suter, Adin Hill, Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, Reilly Smith, Zach Whitecloud, Brayden McNabb, Nicolas Hague.


The total for Game 2 opened at 5.5, so the expectation is that the seven goals we saw in Game 1 won’t happen again. Both teams are elite at scoring goals, but the defense is also strong. Jake Oettinger and Adin Hill are going to have to be busy in this game, but both should be able to stop a healthy amount of shots.

We know that Oettinger hasn’t been elite in the playoffs so far, but he’s always bounced back nicely after a loss. When the total is this low, it’s always a good idea to target a goalie in the CPT position. Hill is also a player worth considering, but I don’t know if he’s going to come away with the win or see enough shots on goal. If you want to play a forward instead, Roope Hintz and Joe Pavelski are the only two players worth considering.

As for the rest of your lineup, it’s going to be about finding value. Tyler Seguin and Wyatt Johnston both finished the last game with six shots on goal. They were the only two players to finish with more than five shots on goal. There’s nothing wrong with playing both in the same lineup since they also see time together on the second power play unit. Ryan Suter is also another name to keep in mind. The veteran defenseman played over 24 minutes last game without seeing any time on the penalty kill. He managed to block five shots, which is great at his current price tag. I don’t know if we should expect a repeat of that tonight, but you can’t argue that he doesn’t provide value.

On the Vegas side, it might be one of those games to forget about the elite players and look for more value. I don’t think Jack Eichel and Mark Stone are bad, but I think we can get more for our money with players like Reilly Smith and Brett Howden. 

The real value is on the blue line. Dallas doesn’t shoot the puck a ton, but Zach Whitecloud, Brayden McNabb and Nicolas Hague all played over 20 minutes last game and were able to hit value without registering a point. Whitecloud did collect two assists, but had he not, he would have still hit value. The interesting part about Vegas is no defenseman player over 22 minutes. They rolled all three pairings, which means all six can be trusted in a close game. If Alex Pietrangelo and Shea Theodore aren’t going to play significant minutes, then why are we paying a premium for them? While I do like the Stars to win this game, there’s nothing wrong with having any combination of the first three defenseman named in your lineup.